New to the city or look­ing to move apart­ment? Here’s your guide to liv­ing in the na­tion’s cap­i­tal

t’s prob­a­bly the hottest of hot topics in Abu Dhabi – where do you live, and how much is your rent? Just like the rest of the UAE, find­ing some­where to lay your hat in the cap­i­tal can be quite the chal­lenge, with ever-chang­ing prices to work out, agents to deal with, and lots of pa­per­work to sort out in­clud­ing that all im­por­tant Tawtheeq doc­u­ment. Be­fore all that, of course, you’ll need to de­cide where you want to live (or where you want to move to if you’re al­ready a res­i­dent). Ac­cord­ing to a re­port from real es­tate con­sul­tancy firm Core Sav­ills, rental rates in the emi­rate are fore­cast to drop four to seven per cent over 2018, af­ter fall­ing ten per cent in 2017 – if you know where to look, it re­ally is a renter’s mar­ket.

Over the next few pages, you’ll find guides to many of the main ar­eas in Abu Dhabi, plus de­tails on what you can ex­pect to pay in those neigh­bour­hoods every year (us­ing info from du­biz­zle.ae, prop­er­tyfinder.ae and data from Crompton Part­ners Es­tate Agents’ 2017 fourth quar­ter re­port). You’ll also find tips from an es­tate agent for land­lords and ten­ants, and more.